DUNCAN WOOD is the director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center. Prior to this, he was a professor and the director of the International Relations Program at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City for 17 years. He has been a member of the Mexican National Research System, an editorial advisor to both Reforma and El Universal newspapers, and is a member of the editorial board of Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica. In 2007, he was a non-resident Fulbright Fellow and, between 2007 and 2009, he was technical secretary of the Red Mexicana de Energia, a group of experts in the area of energy policy in Mexico. He has been a Senior Associate with the Simon Chair and the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. His research focuses on Mexican energy policy, including renewable energy, and North American relations. He studied in the UK and Canada, receiving his PhD in political studies from Queen’s University, Canada, and is a recipient of the Canadian Governor General’s Visit Award for contributions to the Mexico-Canada relationship.

At a time when nearly all of the key issues facing North America are being understood and addressed either independently by the United States, Canada and Mexico, or within the dual-bilateral framework of U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada relations, this report attempts to view these challenges and opportunities through a trilateral lens. more

The Mexico Institute is pleased to invite you to the presentation of a new book by Guillermo Valdés Castellanos, The History of Drug Trafficking in Mexico (La historia del narcotráfico en Mexico). Mr. Valdés will present an inventory of the people involved in drug trafficking organizations and the mechanisms they have employed to build their networks. more

Over the past few months, Mexico’s PAN party has emerged as the pivotal ally for President Enrique Peña Nieto’s PRI government. In December 2013 it was the PAN which supported the government’s constitutional reform of the energy sector. The leader of the PAN, Gustavo Madero, was instrumental in not only achieving that consensus, but in shaping the legislation itself. more

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will host President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the North American Leaders Summit on February 19. On the eve of the summit, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and Canada Institute will host a discussion of the key issues facing the region. more

Mexico’s renewable energy sector is prosperous and with great potential; however, it is necessary that Mexico sees itself as a country that as an energy future beyond Cantarell, beyond PEMEX, beyond oil. The future of renewable energy in Mexico offers great hope for the country and the region and the time is right for a concerted government, industry and social surge to push forward the development of this sector. more

As Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto begins his second year in office, the country is facing rising security concerns brought about by armed vigilantes in the southwest state of Michoacán. These groups are increasingly militarized to the point they are willing to engage in gun battles with organized crime for control of cities. While the government has agreed to work with them in a limited capacity, it is unclear what their role will be, or how they fit into Mexico’s fight against organized crime. more

Mexico Institute Director Duncan Wood offered his testimony regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. In his testimony, he addressed what the goal of the agreement was when it was negotiated, what the potential of the region is today, and what is missing to fully realize the potential of today’s North America. more

Duncan Wood and Christopher Wilson submitted a paper to the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue in December 2013, putting forth ideas of priority areas where business leaders can engage with policy makers to take the next major step forward in integration. more

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Mexico Institute Director Duncan Wood and Associate Christopher Wilson responded to the U.S. Department of Commerce Federal Register Notice published on November 25, 2013, which requested stakeholder input on the U.S.‐Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED).

“2014 will be another pivotal year for Mexico and for President Peña Nieto,” writes Duncan Wood. “Mexico’s Moment has never really materialized, but that may be a good thing; laying solid foundations for long term economic growth is more important than a short-lived economic boom.”

With the North American Free Trade Agreement completing 20 years, it is a good moment to reflect and look toward the region’s future and its place in the world economy. It is important to recognize that NAFTA was a first-generation free trade agreement, originally conceived in the 1980s, and for that reason it was very limited.

The Mexico Institute has partnered with Forbes.com, and will post directly to the Forbes website as a trusted contributor. In this piece, Director Duncan Wood predicts that 2014 will bring changes to the energy industry in the form of a radically different oil and gas sector in Mexico, one that is ripe with opportunity.

Mexico Institute Director Duncan Wood discusses the viability for a successful political reform in Mexico. As the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto nears the end of it's first year, the reform agenda laid out thus far has the potential for far reaching implications for the strength and progress of Mexico's democracy.

Vice-President Joe Biden visited Mexico on Friday to inaugurate the first High Level Economic Dialogue between the two nations. Duncan Wood and Christopher Wilson write about the importance of the dialogue and the role of the vice president.

Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto has proposed changing the constitution to allow private investment in Mexico’s oil industry. Is Mexico ready for such an historic move and what might the proposed reforms accomplish? To gain perspective on these and other questions, we spoke with Mexico Institute Director, Duncan Wood.

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The Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute hosted the launch of the report "The U.S.-Mexico Border Economy in Transition." This report is drawn from a series of four U.S.-Mexico Regional Economic Competitiveness Forums in order to engage border region stakeholders in a process to collectively generate a shared vision and policy recommendations to strengthen economic competitiveness.

The Mexico Institute hosted a book launch and discussion of the rule of law in Mexico. Wilson Center Global Fellow Luis Rubio presented his book "A Mexican Utopia: The Rule of Law is Possible." After his presentation, several leading analysts discussed the development of the rule of law in Mexico, noting challenges and offering policy prescriptions.

The Wilson Center's Mexico Institute hosted its Second Annual Mexican Security Review, The State of Citizen Security in Mexico: 2014 in Review and the Year Ahead. The forum provided a careful examination of security challenges in Mexico, featuring presentations from leading policy analysts. Of particular interest were the available indicators of crime trends, analysis of the specific policy measures of the Peña Nieto administration, and the efforts of civil society to confront recent security problems in Mexico.

The disappearance of 43 students after clashes with police in Iguala, Mexico has left Mexicans horrified and outraged, and has led to nationwide protests. Join us by phone for a discussion of these events, the response by the government and by society, and the impact on Mexico’s international image with two experts on the ground.

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and the Be Foundation were pleased to host the First Binational Forum on Migration and the Right to an Identity: The Double Invisibility of Mexican Migrants in light of Potential U.S. Immigration Reform.

The Mexican energy industry is set for transformation after President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law the reform's secondary legislation in August. On Friday, November 14, 2014, the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center hosted an event at the Wilson Center featuring the first major policy address in the United States by two of the top Mexican officials leading this reform.

The Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, in collaboration with The Institute of Economics and Peace, was pleased to host a discussion on the challenges and opportunities for building a more peaceful society in Mexico.

The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, in collaboration with Freedom House, hosted a discussion of the impact of the Telecom Reform. A panel of leading thinkers discussed the telecommunications reform and its implications for freedom of expression, as well as the ongoing debate about the reform’s secondary legislation.

The Mexico Institute and the Inter-American Dialogue cordially invite you to a discussion of the prospects for the secondary legislation and the key elements that should be included in the process for implementing the reforms. A panel of leading energy experts will address the challenges and opportunities for the forthcoming debate in the Mexican congress.

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Mexico's security strategy is evolving with a focus on coordination and violence reduction. Although tensions have emerged in the short term, the long term offers a number of prospects for fruitful collaboration between the United States and Mexico in the security arena.

On March 14, 2013, Duncan Wood, Director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. The hearing, titled “U.S. Energy Security: Enhancing Partnerships with Mexico and Canada,” included a discussion of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement.

Based on the collaborative work of a high‐level group of Mexican energy experts during the first half of 2012, this report focuses on the issues facing Mexico’s hydrocarbon sector and the most important principles that must underlie the forthcoming reform of the country’s oil and gas industry. Although multiple diagnoses of the sector exist, in recent years there has been no fundamental examination of the principles that should underlie the nation’s energy policy.

The U.S.-Mexico border region is one of enormous energy resources, both traditional and renewable. This report provides an overview of the prospects for renewable energy projects in Mexico’s border states, examining the development of wind, solar and municipal solid waste projects. This research evaluates the potential impact of investment in these projects on border communities in terms of employment, infrastructure, human capital and social participation.

With over 1,000 MW of wind energy capacity now installed and another 2,000 MW under construction, Mexico’s wind energy sector has grown dramatically since the early 1990s. This report examines the potential for creating economic benefits in border states from wind energy development, with particular attention paid to employment and infrastructure.

This report recognizes the growing potential for bioenergy, which has attracted public and private sector interest in recent years. It has become clear that Mexico’s land and labor costs make the cross-border trade in renewable energy an exciting and potentially highly profitable sector. Of bioenergy feedstocks, municipal solid waste may represent the greatest potential for growth in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico transborder region.

First in his series of Monthly Reports on PEMEX and U.S.-Mexico Energy Cooperation, this article explores the implications of the recently signed Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement, which resolves the question of what to do with potential oil reserves along the dividing line between Mexico and the United States in the Gulf of Mexico. Wood sees the agreement as "extremely good news," as it marks the "end of a decades-long process to try to determine oil rights in these two areas, opening the door to exploration and production that offers the prospect of exciting new modes of cooperation between Pemex and private oil companies."